Heeding the Echoes of War

Every beat of a man’s heart pulses the desire for greatness. We long to take up our sword and join in the fray. Yet, the lives of most men don’t look like a grand battle. They look more like a game of put-put golf. We don’t realize the things we do have little impact on the world outside the miniature golf course. The game is fun, but it lacks meaning.

What has happened?

We hear echos or war, the clash of resounding arms and we long to be a part of something greater than ourselves. The drumbeat for battle echoes the beating of our hearts. But, we can’t see the battle because it is fought not with guns but with words and deeds. The war is not in trenches but in the arena of ideas. Our enemy twists the truth to steal, kill, and destroy.

Will we stand to fight him?

Throughout the centuries men of God have stood up against this unseen foe. They carried the torch of truth and now hold it for us to take. But, for many of us, the only battle we fight is against an enemy that doesn’t exist. Why invest hours trying to beat level thirty when a spiritual war wages all around you? If we, the generation of today, fail to take up the torch of truth, who will pass it on to the generation of tomorrow? Will history remember us as those who let it die?

All my life, adults told me that my generation would be the one that God would use to usher in revival. Yet, when I look around I see Christian youth sitting idle, getting entertained by their TVs, computers and youth groups. Where are the warriors training? Where are the strongmen who long to run into battle? Where are the warrior poets holding the torch of truth for all to see? Most of them haven’t even signed up for boot camp. Encouraged by their mothers to value safety over obedience they are still boys. Boys living in men’s bodies.

This is your invitation.

For you, boot camp can start today if you are willing. The only cost of admission is total commitment. There is no room for double mindedness among the soldiers of light. Those who sign up and then look back have no place in the Kingdom we fight for. Our General shares our allegiance with no one. We are either all His or not His at all. God has no grandchildren, step children, or part time warriors. We must follow him alone and with our whole hearts or admit we follow a different king.

But our journey does not end with bootcamp. Some of you reading this are already trained beyond your obedience to God. If that is you, the next step is to do something with the hundreds of hours of sermons you have heard. Take the Gospel out of the church and share it with the lost. Feed the poor. Care for widows and orphans.

God has not called us to play defense against evil. We can’t win if the game ends with the score 0-0. We won’t win by attending weekly Sunday training and then seldom showing up for the battle. God is calling boys to become men of God .

Will you be one of them?

Are you ready to put away childish things and get about your Father’s business? If so, there is a place for you. This book isn’t about helping you quit gaming. It’s an invitation to an adventure that is better than gaming. This book will change your life, if you will let it.

You have been reading an excerpt from a chapter in my book Digital Cancer. What do you think?

Based on the viral blog post Why Courtship is Fundamentally Flawed; Courtship In Crisis, explains where the courtship crisis came from, and why it failed. More importantly, he lays out an alternative model that works.